News

to drop their lap times significantly.

The qualifying session allowed us 12 to 14 laps and you just know what we spent the first 4 laps doing.  You betcha, fighting the #50 Mustang.  It was obvious we needed a gap so Terry radioed Rene and told him to drop back, let the little bleepety-bleep go and see if we could catch a gap.  The maneuver worked and Rene was allowed to get a decent lap in before the checker flew.  We would qualify 29th out of 36.  Certainly less than what the car was capable of, but with the limited track time, not terrible.  The next day, Sunday, would be a much needed rest day before the race on Monday.   

 

Monday saw us up by 5 a.m.  The green flag would fly at 10 a.m. and before then we had to set up the fuel rig,  prepare the pit area for the race, attend a driver's meeting and complete recon laps by 9:30.  This would be Terry's first time to not be behind the wheel and instead be a full blown crew chief and race caller.  The race went quite well.  Rene did a great job of keeping his nose clean, running consistent laps and holding his own until the full course yellow came at lap 56.  The yellow perfectly fit our predetermined pit window.  Terry felt Rene had taken such good care of the car a tire change would not be necessary.  The car was fueled up, the driver change was made and Gary was off! The race went green within a couple laps and Gary almost immediately radioed in that the car was pulling left under braking.  Oh no!  That told Terry the left front tire was going down.  Fortunately, no sooner had the race gone back to the green and there was another crash causing another full course yellow.  Whew!  Gary came in for a fuel top-up and a tire change and our stellar pit crew had him back out without losing much track position.  

 

Gary drove a great second stint, stayed out of trouble and had some really good battles with some very quick competitors.  Team Euro Motorworks/Cardiosport wound up finishing 19th out of 36.  I believe the saying goes,"If wishes and buts were candy and nuts..." something like that?  But...I believe if we'd had another day of quality track time we would have had